Some of the world’s largest tech-forward companies, like Uber, Yelp, and Dropbox, use Braintree Payments as their payment platform. But if you want to follow in the footsteps of these tech behemoths (at least when it comes to how they process digital payments), don’t be scared off by their size: Braintree Payments is an ideal payment processing solution for almost all online and ecommerce businesses, even the smallest ventures.

In this Braintree review, we’ll break down what you need to know about this payment gateway and merchant account provider— including their major features, pricing, and which businesses, in particular, should look into Braintree as their payment processing company. And if your business doesn’t fit the bill—or if you simply want to see what other payment platforms are out there—then we’ll also recommend a few Braintree alternatives for you to consider.

What Is Braintree?

Braintree is a PayPal company that offers merchants a payment gateway and a merchant account—but what are a payment gateway and a merchant account, exactly?

Put simply, the former is a software application that enables business owners to accept payments online, via their business website (with the appropriate plugin) or their ecommerce store.

The latter is a type of bank account that holds funds obtained through your business’s credit card transactions. The merchant account provider fronts you the cash you’re due from those transactions, minus their fees, so you don’t need to wait until your customer pays off their credit card bill to get paid.

And here’s the real difference between Braintree and similar, third-party payment processors: Most of the latter, such as PayPal and Stripe, don’t offer individual merchant accounts on their platforms—rather, they aggregate all their sellers into one big merchant account.

But Braintree actually offers customers their own, unique merchant accounts, which is a more stable and secure solution. That said, if you already have a merchant account that you’re happy with, you can choose only to use Braintree as your payment gateway provider.

With Braintree as your payment platform, you can accept the payment methods your customers use most: all major credit and debit cards, Venmo in the U.S., digital wallets like Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Google Pay, ACH deposits, local payment methods, and, of course, PayPal.

Braintree works in over 130 currencies, in over 45 countries around the world.

Braintree Features

Braintree offers four major products on their platform.

Baked into these four products are Braintree’s additional features—including a suite of fraud protection tools and data security. customized sales reports and access to transaction data on a centralized control panel, and a sizeable list of third-party integrations.

Plus, if you need to process payments in person, then you can integrate PayPal Here into your Braintree account, which is PayPal’s range of external card readers. Keep in mind, however, that PayPal Here doesn’t currently offer a countertop POS solution.

Email and phone support with extended business day hours; 24/7 emergency support

Let’s take a closer look at Braintree’s four major products:

Braintree Direct

Braintree Direct provides you with all the tools you need to accept payments online, including a payment gateway and merchant account.

You can also store your customers’ information to enable recurring billing, and this service can automatically update customer accounts when their payment or shipping information changes.

Everything is PCI-compliant and aligns with industry-wide security standards. It’s a scalable solution, too, so you never need to worry about outgrowing your Braintree account.

Braintree online payments page. Image source: Braintree

Braintree Extend

This service allows you to securely share your customers’ payment information with your partners, without rerouting your customers to your partners’ site to check out.

As Braintree indicates in their case studies, an example of a business to whom this service would be of benefit is a travel site (such as Skyscanner, which is profiled in one Braintree case study) that can share their customers’ information with partner airlines, but still allow customers to book on their own website.

This seamless checkout process is crucial for increasing conversion.

Braintree Auth

If you’re a merchant service provider, such as an accountant, with this service your merchants can give you permission to join their Braintree accounts so that you can manage their data remotely.

Braintree Marketplace

On Braintree Marketplace, you can access the platform’s customizable, developer-friendly APIs to implement a comprehensive payment solution into your online business.

And as Braintree is a PayPal company, Braintree also allows you to integrate with PayPal’s robust capabilities, too.

Additional Tools

On top of their four main products, Braintree also offers:

Account updater: This tool allows you to minimize the loss of sales from canceled or expired cards by automatically updating customer card details.

3D Secure: This is an additional security tool that offers advanced cardholder verification to reduce the risk of fraud and chargebacks.

Customer Service

In addition to their self-service support resources—which include a blog, articles, and developer docs—Braintree offers both phone and email-based customer support.

For U.S. businesses, Braintree offers their email support from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. central time, Monday through Thursday and 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday. For their phone support, on the other hand, Braintree is available 8 a.m. to 7 p.m Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

Braintree Pricing

One of Braintree’s major selling points is their simple and transparent pricing model: You’ll just pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, in credit card processing fees which aligns with the industry standard for online payments. The only exceptions to this model are ACH direct deposits, which will incur a 0.75% fee; and PayPal and PayPal Credit payments, which cost nothing. Rates are slightly lower for verified 501(c)(3) organizations, too.

Other than that, there are no extra or hidden fees (like setup, maintenance, service, or early cancellation fees), though you will need to pay an additional 1% for non-U.S. currency, and if the customer’s card is issued by a non-U.S. bank. You’ll also be charged a flat $15 for chargebacks. But again, all of the Braintree payment gateway pricing is clearly listed on their website.

Also, as we mentioned earlier, you may choose not to utilize a Braintree merchant account. If you choose to integrate your Braintree payment gateway with your existing merchant account, however, you’ll need to pay a $49 monthly fee for your payment gateway, as well as $.10 per transaction and another $10 for any additional merchant accounts you link up.

Alternately, if you process more than $80,000 per month, you can opt for a custom pricing model that’s based on your sales volume and business model.

Braintree Pros and Cons

So, based on all of the information we’ve discussed thus far in our Braintree review, you may be wondering: How does this payment gateway provider stand up against competitors?

As with any business product, there are both advantages and drawbacks to choosing Braintree as your online payment solution. To start, here are some benefits to consider:

Pros

Limited fees: In essence, Braintree only charges you for the cost of payment processing. Plus, their online payment rates are fairly standard, they charge a pretty low rate for ACH payments, and similarly, have low fees for international payments. Moreover, if you get your merchant account through Braintree, you don’t have to pay a monthly fee or any additional fees for this account.

Simple, straightforward solution for online payments: Whether you need a payment gateway to integrate with your ecommerce platform, you want to drop in a checkout to your existing website, or you want to build a custom payment page, you can do so with Braintree. When it comes down to it, Braintree makes it quick, easy, and simple to accept and process online payments.

Can accept a variety of payment types and currencies: With Braintree, you can accept all major debit and credit cards, including wallets and other digital payments. Of course, you can also accept PayPal (and with no cost). Plus, Braintree works in over 130 currencies—which is particularly useful for ecommerce businesses conducting sales across international lines.

Great developer tools: If you have the technical knowledge or resources to build a customized payment solution for your business, Braintree offers the developer tools to allow you to do so. Through their developer docs, you have everything you need to manage a simple or complex integration—including fraud-, operational-, and data tools.

Included dedicated merchant account: Although it’s not technically necessary for your business to have its own dedicated merchant account to accept credit card payments, it often helps with stability and speedy processing. With Braintree, you don’t have to go through the process to find a merchant account on your own.

Cons

Despite the notable advantages of Braintree Payments, there are a few downsides to keep in mind as well:

Not well-suited for brick-and-mortar businesses: Even though Braintree allows you to connect your account to PayPal Here to accept in-person payments, this processor simply isn’t built for brick-and-mortar businesses. Braintree is first and foremost an online payment solution, and therefore, brick-and-mortar businesses will likely need much more than can be offered through PayPal Here. If you’re looking for a countertop type POS system for your physical store that will allow you to not only process payments but also manage orders, customers, and inventory as well, you’ll want to look into Braintree alternatives.

Expensive to use an existing merchant account: If you already have a merchant account and are considering using Braintree, you’ll have to pay a much more expensive monthly fee to do so. The monthly fee for using the Braintree payment gateway with your merchant account is $49—not to mention any fees you’re already paying for that account. Therefore, if you want to continue to use the merchant account you have, you might look for a payment gateway provider that doesn’t charge such a high monthly fee.

Braintree Customer Reviews

What do users have to say about their experience with Braintree Payments?

Based on our research, most online Braintree reviews are positive. Users often highlight the intuitive interface, ease of integration, and overall, the robust developer documentation associated with Braintree. In addition, users also mention the customization capabilities, international reach, and affordable fees.

On the other hand, of course, there are negative Braintree reviews as well. Some users mention particular features that could use improvement—such as reporting, search, and recurring payments. Perhaps the most noteworthy negative reviews are those on the Better Business Bureau website. These reviews highlight account issues with fraudulent transactions and chargebacks and the lack of response and notification from Braintree.

It seems that Braintree has responded to these complaints in an attempt to reach a resolution, however, it is worth noting that you may need to monitor your account carefully to avoid these kinds of issues.

Best Alternatives to Braintree Payments

Although Braintree is an excellent payment processing option for online-only retail or marketplace businesses, it certainly won’t suit every small business out there. Here are just a few of your alternative options:

Square

When it comes down to it, Square makes up for many of what some small businesses would perceive as Braintree’s shortcomings. Most notably, if you don’t have a developer on your team, then Braintree’s API might be too complex for you to implement on your own. Also, Braintree doesn’t provide POS hardware outside of PayPal’s own external card readers, which are limited to mobile POS systems—so if you need a countertop register, then you’ll need to set your sights elsewhere.

Here’s where Square might help you out: First off, Square’s free software is easy to use—you simply need to download the app to your smart device or laptop, then hook up one of Square’s external card readers to accept and process payments in person. For in-person payments, you can choose from Square’s range of external card readers, which include mPOS solutions as well as Square Register, their fully functional countertop POS terminal.

Square can accept payments online through their virtual terminal, too, which is compatible with major ecommerce platforms. And if you’re building your online store from the ground up—and you want your customers to have a seamless checkout experience, using Square as your payment processor—then you can use Square Online Store, which gives you access to professional online store templates.

Stripe

Like Braintree, Stripe is the fully integrated payment processor of choice for some of the most famous tech companies out there, like Slack and Lyft. As such, Stripe is remarkably customizable—which is ideal if you have engineers who can take advantage of that feature, or if you have a programming background yourself.

Beyond that, Stripe is loaded with all the payment processing capabilities you’d expect from such a processor trusted by tech giants. Therefore, if you’re looking for an even more technologically advanced payments solution, Stripe might be worth considering.

Authorize.Net

If you want a dedicated merchant account and a payment gateway from the same provider, like Braintree offers, then Stripe and Square may not be the best options for you—as we mentioned, these payment service providers aggregate all of their customers into one merchant account.

As an alternative, you might look into Authorize.Net. This service offers similar features as Braintree, such as fraud prevention, recurring payments, saved customer information, and automatic account updates. You can also add a customizable “Pay Now” button to your ecommerce store for a fully integrated checkout experience.

Authorize.Net’s payment gateway-merchant account bundle pricing model is the same as Braintree’s: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. However, you’ll also need to pay an additional $25 monthly fee for this service plan.

Is Braintree Right for Your Business?

At the end of the day, if you run an ecommerce business and need a robust, online credit card processing solution, Braintree certainly is a worthwhile option. After all, as we’ve discussed in this Braintree review, this payment gateway provider offers comprehensive, highly customizable checkout solutions, a transparent pricing structure, and the ability to accept a huge amount of payment types in over 100 currencies.

This being said, however, your digital payment processing options certainly don’t begin and end with Braintree. Square is worth consideration for businesses that don’t have an engineer to take advantage of Braintree’s APIs or those that need more robust in-person POS hardware than what Braintree has to offer.

Stripe is another widely used, tech-forward payment processing solution to look into, while Authorize.Net can be an option for businesses that want their own, dedicated merchant account, rather than a shared, aggregate account with every other seller on their payment processor’s platform.

Ultimately, however, it will be up to you to decide what’s best for your business. In any case, you’ll want to compare Braintree with other payment solutions you’re considering to ensure that you find the right choice for your unique needs.

Caroline Goldstein

Caroline is a former Fundera staff writer and current freelance writer, specializing in small business and finance. She has an MFA in fiction from New York University. She loves finding creative ways to help entrepreneurs grow.